Wisconsin is shifting up to $90 million in local road funding to Foxconn-related projects

Signs for Interstates 41 and 94 can be seen along County Line Road on Oct. 26, 2017, in Mount Pleasant. Foxconn's new 20 million-square-foot manufacturing plant will be built in Mount Pleasant.(Photo: TNS)

MADISON - Wisconsin is shifting up to $90 million away from other state highway projects to do road work related to the massive Foxconn factory being built in Racine County.

GOP Gov. Scott Walker's administration has said that no other road work has been delayed because the state has tapped savings from other projects that have come in under budget.

But a memo from the Legislature's nonpartisan budget office found that, even after accounting for the savings, the state still has $70 million to $90 million less for other road projects after allocating the money to prepare for Foxconn Technology Group. The report also found that the condition of state roads is expected to deteriorate over the next decade.

The findings drew a sharp response from Democratic leaders who requested the report and released it Wednesday.

"If it wasn’t clear by now, as long as Governor Walker is in office, our roads will never be fixed. The governor has failed to address transportation funding for seven years, and now he is prioritizing Foxconn over desperately needed road repairs all over the state,” Rep. Gordon Hintz (D-Oshkosh) said.

FOXCONN DEVELOPMENT IN WISCONSIN
Foxconn sees role for Green Bay-area suppliers | 0:57

At the New North Summit Thursday, a Foxconn official said northeast Wisconsin companies will be key to fulfilling the company's demands for materials and services once it begins production in Racine County. Dec. 7, 2017.
Jeff Bollier/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

Walker has said he is working to help Foxconn create jobs and to keep gas taxes low.

“If the Democrats want to raise the gas tax, then the hardworking taxpayers deserve to know by how much? Is it 10, 20, 50 cents or something else? Governor Walker would never raise the gas tax unless there is an equal or greater deduction in the overall tax burden," Walker spokeswoman Amy Hasenberg said in a statement.

Democrats aren't the only ones who have talked about raising taxes or fees for roads.

In recent years, Walker and Republican lawmakers have had an at times bitter debate over how to fund highway and bridge projects in the state. The governor and Senate conservatives oppose a gas tax increase while Assembly GOP leaders have said the state should consider new sources of revenue for roads.

In a Feb. 7 letter to Democratic lawmakers, DOT official Dana Burmaster said that other road projects wouldn't be affected by the state taking on $102 million to $122 million in extra costs from seven additional projects to pave the way for the Foxconn factory. That's because the state managed to save $127 million last year on other projects, Burmaster wrote.

But the fiscal bureau report found that most of the savings last year and this year were used in other ways and covered just $32 million of the Foxconn costs.

The remaining money for reconditioning and resurfacing roads would total at least $1.53 billion over two years, or just slightly more than would have been available if lawmakers had not increased funding levels from the previous budget.

But that funding isn't enough to keep roads in Wisconsin from deteriorating, according to the fiscal bureau.

Even with $1.7 billion a year in funding, the share of state roads in "fair and above" condition would fall from 79% to 62% over the next 10 years, the report says. At current funding levels, an even lower percentage will be in good repair, it found.